Get paid up to £6pkWh for not using big appliances in the evening?

Section62

Marmaduke123 said:

I don't know how you could possibly save £6 worth of electricity. 

£6 has just been suggested as an upper bound on what payment might be appropriate to encourage people to switch off.  It doesn't mean anyone will get £6 (per day/event).

prowla

How do they know what time of day you are using your electricity?

Section62

prowla said:

How do they know what time of day you are using your electricity?

Because eligible participants will have a (working) smart meter.

TOU charging is why smart meters have been installed, this is just using the meters for what they were designed to do.

Petriix

I took part in the Octopus trial. Basically they know your average usage for any given time period and set you a target to use less than 60% of your average. If you do then all the energy you use becomes free.

There were a small number of participants who were asked to double their usage in some low demand periods.

As with many of these things, people willing to adapt their behaviour (rather than insisting on continuing to do everything exactly as they currently do) will be able to benefit. 

Swipe

Section62 said:

prowla said:

How do they know what time of day you are using your electricity?

Because eligible participants will have a (working) smart meter.

TOU charging is why smart meters have been installed, this is just using the meters for what they were designed to do.

And why so many people were against them

Sea_Shell

Petriix said:

I took part in the Octopus trial. Basically they know your average usage for any given time period and set you a target to use less than 60% of your average. If you do then all the energy you use becomes free.

There were a small number of participants who were asked to double their usage in some low demand periods.

As with many of these things, people willing to adapt their behaviour (rather than insisting on continuing to do everything exactly as they currently do) will be able to benefit. 

How long do you have to have had a smart meter to enable it to know what your typical usage is?

If you only had one installed over the summer, it won't yet know your "winter" profile.

Sorry to sound so sceptical, but on the face of it this idea seems a bit of a white elephant.   But I hope I'm proved wrong and many many households can and will benefit.

[Deleted User]

Don't assume that what is being proposed looks anything like the Octopus trial.  There have been many many projects investigating how this style of scheme can be implemented and the rebate vs average pattern is only one of many options.

pochase

Marmaduke123 said:

I see they don't mention ovens! We did the Octopus trial a few months back and avoided not only using the dishwasher and washing machine during the set times, but also the oven and kettle. We got a rebate of about 21p each time. I don't know how you could possibly save £6 worth of electricity. 

21p x 30 days is very near to £6. Somebody might have thought just £6 might better without adding the "per month"

Vincero

Petriix said:

I took part in the Octopus trial. Basically they know your average usage for any given time period and set you a target to use less than 60% of your average. If you do then all the energy you use becomes free.

There were a small number of participants who were asked to double their usage in some low demand periods.

As with many of these things, people willing to adapt their behaviour (rather than insisting on continuing to do everything exactly as they currently do) will be able to benefit. 

All of the energy during just that period or per day or what?

I could forsee in some cases people reducing their usage so much, but I don't think the amount they are talking about would address the upcoming overall bill shock for many.
People who could benefit most from this are ironically probably well off enough to have something like a Tesla Powerwall - charge up when cheap rate (or maybe even free / credit for use) and then deploy the energy when you need to reduce the grid usage and get paid for it....

Alnat1

Those with batteries probably already are using them in the evenings when the sun has gone down. If this exercise is about reducing your normal evening usage, their normal will be 0 and they can't reduce that.